Drapery clip



Patented Apr. 12, 1938 naarsav our Alfred J. Steinberger, Jamaica, N.Y., assignor to Celanese Corporation of America, a corporation ofDelaware Application February 19, 1936, Serial No. 64,731

8 Claims.

This invention relates to an attachment for curtains, drapes, portieresand like hangings, which attachment is designed to hold pleats and foldsin the hangings without requiring any stitching or other permanentfastening means.

An object of the invention is the production of an attachment fortemporarily holding pleats and folds in curtains, drapes, etc. Anotherobiect of the invention is the production of pleated drapes in which thepleats may be readily changed at will, and which have no sewn pleats,thereby permitting easier laundering. Other objects of the inventionwill appear from the. following detailed description and drawing.

In the drawing, wherein like reference numerals refer to the same orsimilar elements;

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a curtain having folds held in place bya clip in accordance with this invention,

Fig. 2 is an elevational view of one form of clip, made in accordancewith this invention,

Fig. 3 is an elevational view, partially in section, of a section of acurtain held in the folded form by the clip,

Fig. 4 is a side view taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2,

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 5-4 of Fig. 2,

Fig. 6 is a sectional view, similar to Fig. 5, of another form of theclip,

Fig. 7 is a sectional view, similar to Fig. 5, of still another form ofthe clip,

Fig. 8 is a plan view of a modified form of clip with a curtain held inplace thereby,

Fig. 9 is a sectional view, similar to Fig. 5 of a corrugated clip, Fig.10 is a sectional view, similar to Fig. 5, of a' clip having a metalreinforcing member surrounding the same, and

Fig. 11 is a sectional view of a modified form of my invention whereinthe metal reinforcing member is embedded in plastic material and thencovered witha fabric.

It has been 0 for windows an displays by forming hems on the sheetmaterial, then forming the folds, such as pleats, etc., and sewing thesefolds in place.

I have now found that thefolds may be held in place by means of clips insuch a way that no sewn pleats are necessary. This means of temporarilyholding the folds in place makes for easier laundering, no needle holesand ease in changing the type and number of folds at will.

In accordance with my invention, I retain in position folds, pleats,etc. in drapes, curtains,

omary to form drapery pleats 1 like.

portieres and like decorative and utilitarian hangings by means of aresilient clip. Also, in accordance with my invention, I produce a clipformed at least in part of a plastic material, which plastic materialmay be coated with suitable fabrics, or treated in other ways, forproducing non-slipping surfaces. The clip may be reinforced, if desired,with metallic insertsjetc. to increase the resilience thereof.

This invention is adaptable to all typ s of hangings. It is particularlyapplicable to drapes for displays in store windows and booths where thedrape design is changed periodically, say, weekly or semi-weekly. Forinstance, the folds of'the drape may be readily changed to harmonizewith furniture of any period. The material of the drape may be anysuitable woven, knitted, netted or knotted textile material formed offilaments, fibres, ribbons, etc. of cotton, silk, linen, wool,artificial textile materials andthe This invention is also particularlyapplicable to the formation of drapes from non-fabric sheet materialsuch as substantially continuous sheets of foil of regenerated orreconstituted cellulose (Cellophane), metallic foil, surfaced papers,such as parchment paper, crepe paper, glassine, etc. While such sheetsare of sufficient strength to withstand normal handling, however, whenthey are sewn together to form drapes of the desired size or to form ahem on the drapes, the stitching punctures the sheets, thus weakeningthe same at the seams so that they are easily torn. The use of the clipas a holding means for non-textile sheet material is of advantage inthat no stitching is required.

The invention will now be described with particular reference to thedrawing. Referring to Figs. 1 and 3, there is shown a curtain formed ofa sheet material I. This sheet material may be any suitable fabric, ornon-textile pliable sheet material such as foils, treated papers and thelike. This sheet material may be formed with hems at the bottom 2; andat the top 3. It is preferable to place these hems in the sheet materialby means such as is described in my 00- pending application S. No.45,891, filed October 21, 1935. However, when working with-textilematerials these hems may be placed in the material by means of stitches.A plurality of folds are placed in the sheet material as at 4. Thesefolds are held in place by means of a clip 5. As will be obvious fromthe description of the clip given below, these clips may be employed tohold folds of any desired shape in the drapery.

Such folds may be, for example, French tripleats, box pleats and evenaccordion pleats.

The clip 5 is formed of two or more registering gripping fingers 6 whichare forced toward each other by a resilient hinge I integral therewithand forming a substantially cylindrical member. The gripping fingers 6and the hinge I may be formed of a continuous strip of thermoplastic orthermosetting material 8, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The contactingfaces 9 of the fingers may be scored for the purpose of more firmlygripping the material and preventing the material from slipping over thefingers. If desired, other means of preventing the slipping of thematerial retained in the fingers may be employed, such'as that shown inFig. '7 wherein a fabric 10 is coalesced into the thermoplastic materialof the fingers 6 in such a manner as to leave the texture of the clothon the outer surface substantially unmodified. The fabric l may becoalesced on to the thermoplastic material 8 by surrounding the fingersand, if desired, the hinge with the fabric and then subjecting thearticle to heat and pressure, preferably in the presence of a softeningor swelling agent for the thermoplastic material.

For the purpose of adding strength and resiliency to the hinge member 1of the fingers 6, metal reinforcing members II in the form of acontinuous metallic -strip may 'be embedded in the thermoplastic orthermosetting material during the formation thereof. The clips may bemade with a metal insert by molding the plastic material around theinsert by any suitable method known in the art. Furthermore, a metalstrip formed to shape, or prior to forming to shape, may be dipped intoa solution of thermoplastic or thermosetting material in a volatilesolvent. The dipping may be repeated any number of times to place uponthe metal strip the desired thickness of the. thermoplastic material.

As shown in Fig. 11, the thermoplastic or thermosetting material 8surrounding the metallic strip l I may be covered by a fabric III.

In place of employing a metal reinforcing member, the drapery clip maybe formed from a strip of thermoplastic or thermosetting material, asshown n Fig. 9, having corrugations l2 disposed n such a manner as toadd strength to the hinge, or the plastic material may be grooved as. atH! in Fig. 10 and a metallic member l4 placed in the groove. In any formof the clip it is preferable to have the ends of the fingers I5 curvedoutwardly to facilitate the placing of the clip on the folds of thedrape.

If desired, the clip may have more than two fingers, as shown at Fig. 8.In such a construction, each pair of fingers 6 is connected by a hingeI. In this modified form of the invention, a clip having any number offingers may be produced.

The fingers and hinges of the clip may be formed of any suitableresilient material. It is preferable, however, to form the same fromthermoplastic materials, such as cellulose nitrate, organic esters ofcellulose, mixed organic esters of cellulose, cellulose ethers, orether-esters of cellulose. Examples of organic esters of cellulose arecellulose acetate, cellulose formate, cellulose propionate and cellulosebutyrate, while an example of a mixed organic ester of cellulose iscellulose acetate-propionate. Examples of cellulose ethers are ethylcellulose, methyl cellulose and benzyl cellulose, while an example of anetherester of cellulose is methyl cellulose acetate.

fingers may be of any suitable fabric.

The fabric I 0 used as a means of decoration and as a means of reducingthe slipperiness of the For instance, it may be a fabric formed ofthreads or filaments of organic derivatives of cellulose or it may be afabric of hon-thermoplastic materials. such as linen, cotton, wool, etc.

The metal reinforcing members II and It may be of sprlngy steel, brass,copper or other metal having a resiliency greater. than that of thethermoplastic material.

The thermoplastic material may be made of a material to match orharmonize with the material employed in the drapes or it may be of atransparent glass color, or it may be white, black or variegated colors.The plastic material of the clip may be formed of a plurality oflaminated sheets, some of said sheets differing in color transparency ordesign from others, thus producing pleasing ornamental patterns,designs,.etc.

The plastic material may be extruded or formed into a strip having thegeneral cross-section of that shown in Fig. 2 and then cut intosections, or the material may be cut into strips and then bent to thedesired shape under the influence of heat.

Other methods of forming the clip may be employed.

It is to be understood that the foregoing detailed description is givenmerely by way of illustration and that many variations may be madetherein without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Having described my invention, what I desire to secure by Letters Patentis:

l. A pleating clip for drapery and the like comprising at least twodrapery engaging fingers and a resilient hinge continuous with saidfingers, said fingers and hinge being made of a thermoplastic material,and the fingers being covered with a fabric made of a thermoplasticderivative of cellulose.

2. A pleating clip for drapery and the like comprising at least twodrapery engaging fingers and a resilient hinge continuous with saidfingers, said fingers and hinge being made of a thermoplastic material,and the fingers having fused thereon a fabric made of a thermoplasticderivative of v with a fabric made of cellulose acetate.

4. A pleating clip for drapery and the like comprising at least twodrapery engaging fingers and a resilient hinge continuous with saidfingers, said fingers and hinge being made of a thermoplastic material,and the fingers having fused thereon a fabric. made of celluloseacetate.

5. A pleating clip for drapery and the like comprising at least twodrapery engaging fingers and a resilient hinge continuous with saidfingers, said fingers and hinge being made of cellulose acetate, and thefingers being covered with a fabric made of cellulose acetate.

6. A pleating clip for drapery and the like comprising at least twodrapery engaging fingers and a resilient hinge continuous with saidfingers, said fingers and hinge being made of cellulose acetate, and thefingers having fused thereon a fabric made of cellulose acetate.

7. A pleating clip for drapery and the like comprising at least twodrapery engaging fingers and u a. resilient hinge continuous with saidfingers, said fingers and hinge being made of a metal strip embedded ina thermoplastic material, and the fingers being covered with a fabricmade of a thermoplastic derivative of cellulose.

8. A pleating clip for drapery and the like comprising at least twodrapery engaging fingers and a resilient hinge continuous with saidfingers, said fingers and hinge being made of a metal strip embedded ina thermoplastic material, and the fingers having fused thereon a fabricmade of a thermoplastic derivative of cellulose.

ALFRED J. STEINBERGER.

